# REST authentication

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/rest-authentication/1249>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [August 30, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/rest-authentication/1249 "2009-08-30T05:17:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Nick](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Nick)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/rest-authentication/1249/1 "2009-08-30T05:17:16Z")

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Hi Chef folks-

I’m very new to Chef. I’m trying to update the nodes on my chef server using Chef::REST, and I’m having trouble getting authenticated.

When I run this snippet:

#### start snippet

require 'chef’  
require ‘chef/rest’

user = "nick"  
pass = "whatever"  
chefServer = "[https://my-chef-server](https://my-chef-server)"  
validationToken = “something”

r = Chef::REST.new(chefServer)  
r.register(user,pass,validationToken)

r = Chef::REST.new(chefServer)  
r.authenticate(user, pass)

#### end snippet

I get this output:

#### start output

[Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:02:09 +0000] DEBUG: Registering nick for an openid  
[Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:02:09 +0000] DEBUG: Sending HTTP Request via GET to /registrations/nick  
[Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:02:09 +0000] DEBUG: Sending HTTP Request via POST to /registrations  
[Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:02:09 +0000] DEBUG: Authenticating nick via openid  
[Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:02:09 +0000] DEBUG: Sending HTTP Request via POST to /openid/consumer/start  
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2097:in `error!': 400 "Bad Request" (Net::HTTPServerException) from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.8/lib/chef/rest.rb:233:in`run\_request’  
from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.8/lib/chef/rest.rb:95:in `post_rest' from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.8/lib/chef/rest.rb:68:in`authenticate’  
from go.rb:13

#### end output

Also, I noticed this in the Apache error.log:

#### start error.log

Params: {“submit”=\>“Verify”, “action”=\>“start”, “controller”=\>“chef\_server\_slice/openid\_consumer”, “openid\_identifier”=\>“[http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick](http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick)”}  
~ Discovery failed for [http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick:](http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick:) Failed to fetch identity URL [http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick](http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick) : Error fetching [http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick:](http://localhost:4001/openid/server/node/nick:) Connection refused - connect(2) - (Merb::ControllerExceptions::BadRequest)  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-server-slice-0.7.8/app/controllers/openid\_consumer.rb:41:in `start' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-core-1.0.12/lib/merb-core/controller/abstract_controller.rb:315:in`send’  
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/merb-core-1.0.12/lib/merb-core/controller/abstract\_controller.rb:315:in `\_call\_action’  
[snip…]

#### end error.log

It looks like the registration part is working. In the web UI I can see the “nick” Registration is validated.

I have chef-clients on other machines that are successfully authenticating and running recipes just fine.

Is there something that I am missing about using Chef::REST? Is there a better library I should try using for RESTful Node management?

Thanks.

-Nick

---

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**Author:** ![Claus\_Divossen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba9def/32.png) [@Claus\_Divossen](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Claus_Divossen)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/rest-authentication/1249/2 "2009-08-30T11:59:28Z")

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On Sat, 2009-08-29 at 22:17 -0700, Nick wrote:

> Hi Chef folks-
> 
> I'm very new to Chef. I'm trying to update the nodes on my chef server using Chef::REST, and I'm having trouble getting authenticated.  
> [...]  
> Is there something that I am missing about using Chef::REST? Is there a better library I should try using for RESTful Node management?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> -Nick

Hi Nick,

have a look at "Knife", [gist:104080 · GitHub](http://gist.github.com/104080). It's a nice  
little command line tool to handle node/recipe assignments and  
attributes which is based on the Rest API.

Regards,  
Claus

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Nick](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Nick)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/rest-authentication/1249/3 "2009-09-01T20:11:38Z")

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After comparing the Knife code with what I was doing, the only thing I was missing was setting Chef::Config[:openid\_url] (which is used in Chef::Rest).

Thanks Claus.

--- On Sun, 8/30/09, Claus Divossen [claus.divossen@t-online.de](mailto:claus.divossen@t-online.de) wrote:

> From: Claus Divossen [claus.divossen@t-online.de](mailto:claus.divossen@t-online.de)  
> Subject: [chef] Re: REST authentication  
> To: [chef@lists.opscode.com](mailto:chef@lists.opscode.com)  
> Date: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 4:59 AM  
> On Sat, 2009-08-29 at 22:17 -0700,  
> Nick wrote:
> 
> > Hi Chef folks-
> > 
> > I'm very new to Chef. I'm trying to update the  
> > nodes on my chef server using Chef::REST, and I'm having  
> > trouble getting authenticated.  
> > [...]  
> > Is there something that I am missing about using  
> > Chef::REST? Is there a better library I should try  
> > using for RESTful Node management?
> > 
> > Thanks.
> > 
> > -Nick
> 
> Hi Nick,
> 
> have a look at "Knife", [gist:104080 · GitHub](http://gist.github.com/104080). It's a nice  
> little command line tool to handle node/recipe assignments  
> and  
> attributes which is based on the Rest API.
> 
> Regards,  
> Claus